At seventeen, Angelica Barr was a runaway orphan who found herself beginning a new life, in a small, East Tennessee town. Harvey Gold was a large, scruffy looking man, who was a disgraced and shunned law partner from Philadelphia. Harvey had also found his way to Hopeful, Tennessee, where he moved into a cabin in the forest and began a life of solitude. After eight months of never meeting each other, an array of unimaginable circumstances brought Harvey and Angelica together. They found in each other what others denied them. The citizens of Hopeful called their relationship shameful and regarded them with disgust. When mutilated bodies of young women began showing up in surrounding counties, Wilbur Karn, a leading citizen, became obsessed with proving that Harvey Gold was the killer. Harvey and Angelica wanted to leave the state and begin a new life elsewhere, but first, they would have to defeat the misguided citizens of Hopeful in an all-out fight for their lives.